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Elephants, termites and mound thermoregulation in a progressively warmer world

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Abstract

Context

With global change, microclimates become important refuges for temperature-sensitive, range-restricted organisms. In African savannas, woody vegetation on Macrotermes mounds create widely-dispersed microclimates significantly cooler than the surrounding matrix, which buffer against elevated temperatures at the finer scale of mounds, allowing species to persist at the landscape scale. Termite colonies cultivate symbiotic fungi to digest lignin, but the fungi require temperatures between 29 and 32 °C, which termites strive to maintain. Mound-associated vegetation is a hot-spot for elephant herbivory, so removal of woody species cover by elephants could influence mound-associated microclimates, impacting temperature regulation by termites.

Objectives

We explored the interaction between two prominent ecosystem engineers (termites and elephants) to ascertain whether elephant removal of mound woody cover affects (1) external mound-associated microclimate and (2) internal mound temperature.

Methods

We surveyed 44 mounds from three sites in Kruger National Park, South Africa, during an El Niño/Southern Oscillation-induced drought and heatwave, recording whether sub-canopy, external, mound-surface and internal mound temperatures varied with vegetation removal by elephant.

Results

Elephant damage to mound-associated vegetation reduces the fine-scale microclimate effect provided by vegetation on Macrotermes mounds. Despite this, termites were able to regulate internal mound temperatures, whereas internal temperatures of abandoned mounds increased with elevated surface temperatures.

Conclusions

Termites can persist despite loss of mound-associated microclimates, but the loss likely increases energetic costs of mound thermoregulation. Since mound vegetation buffers against drought, loss of widely-dispersed, fine-scale microclimates could increase as megaherbivores remain constrained to protected areas, impacting climate-sensitive organisms and ecosystem function at a range of scales.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the South African National Parks, and staff and students at the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) for their support and assistance in this project. We acknowledge the financial and logistic support of the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Department of Science & Technology (DST) through the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) Chair on Biodiversity Value and Change in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, hosted and supported by the University of Venda. We thank two anonymous reviewers and the editors for useful comments which improved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Grant S. Joseph.

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Joseph, G.S., Seymour, C.L., Coetzee, B.W.T. et al. Elephants, termites and mound thermoregulation in a progressively warmer world. Landscape Ecol 33, 731–742 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-018-0629-9

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